Fans will love Joe Burrow’s thoughts on 2026 Bengals originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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For years, the Cincinnati Bengals have had an elite offense, but have been let down by having one of the worst defenses in football.
This offseason, the franchise has shifted its approach and has made several moves to solidify that side of the ball.
Moves for Dexter Lawrence, Boye Mafe, and Bryan Cook have seen the Bengals’ defense look far more formidable on paper than in recent years.
And for star quarterback Joe Burrow, he’s bullish on what the Bengals can do in 2026, largely because of the defensive moves the franchise made.
“I’m really excited about the moves we made this offseason,” Burrow said to Vanity Fair. “We need to get better, so it was exciting to see the initiative from everybody in the organization to realize that we’re in this exciting stage. We’re in our primes playing great football.
“Finding guys like Dexter [Lawrence] and Bryan Cook and Boye [Mafe] to, you know, really solidify that defense so the young guys can also kind of rise up. We’re really going to try to achieve what we want to achieve.”
MORE:Kenneth Walker hints at Chiefs’ game plan in 2026
Can Bengals finally break through?
The Bengals have always been a team that, if injuries stay away, is a bona fide playoff team, mostly due to the offense.
The biggest problem is that the Bengals have rarely reached the postseason over the last handful of years; in fact, Cincinnati hasn’t made the playoffs in the last three seasons.
Can that change in 2026?
They have the offensive power to be a problem, but the questions are defensively. Are the signs made enough for the Bengals to have a good enough defense to go deep into the playoffs?
That is the big question, and we won’t know until the season kicks off.
